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Srinjoy Bose

Dr Srinjoy Bose

Drawing on his training in political science, international relations, and political sociology, Dr Srinjoy Bose's research agenda is shaped by topics in Critical Peace research including peace transitions, conflict transformation, and the political economy of statebuilding and peacebuilding. Specifically, he is investigating tensions between local and international interests and best practices, the conflictual and destabilising effects of democratisation, debates in political development including governance and governmentality, and the politics and economy of clientelist and patronage networks in fragile states.
Dr Bose values interdisciplinary collaborative research highly and has contributed towards designing and/or leading several collaborative projects. For example, he is co-editor with International Relations and Diplomacy scholar, Professor William Maley (ANU), of an edited manuscript titled “Afghanistan in South-West Asia: Influences and Challenges”. Situated within the field of peace transition research, this volume anticipates the challenges of the ongoing political and military transitions in Afghanistan. Of particular concern is the sense that an international military withdrawal has left a political, security, and strategic vacuum that is impacting the state and has ramifications for the neighbouring region. The manuscript is under review with Durham Modern Middle East and Islamic World Series (Routledge). He is also co-editor with Development Studies scholar Professor Jonathan Goodhand (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London) and Peace Studies scholar Dr Astri Suhrke (Chr. Michelsen Institute, Norway) of a special-issue volume for the journal Conflict, Security and Development. The volume critiques the rise of democracy promotion, and employs a political economy framework to understand the more focused research on democratisation and elections. Finally, he is co-editor with a group of respected Development Studies and International Relations scholars at the ANU of an edited manuscript titled “Hybridity in Peacebuilding and Development: Critical Conversations”. The volume examines the potential contribution of the concept of ‘hybridity’ to improving understanding of pluralism and change in socially complex societies in the Asia-Pacific and beyond. The manuscript is under review with The Australian National University Press.

In April and June 2014, Dr Bose traveled to Afghanistan as an international election observer with Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission (IEC), and will be observing the 2017 Parliamentary elections, too.

Dr Bose earned his PhD in Political Science and International Relations from The ANU (2016).

Thesis topic

Supervisor

‘Legitimacy in Afghanistan: Keeping the State at Bay’. 2016-2017. Self-contained article based on PhD dissertation. Examining tensions in statebuilding between local and international interests and practices. The study demonstrates that Afghanistan’s social order curbed and blunted the ambitions of political power, and made it extraordinarily resistant to political moulding. Individual project. Work in-progress. Manuscript to be submitted with Journal of Peace Research.

‘Dispersion of Coercive Power in Afghanistan: Structural Legitimacy and State Legitimation’. 2016-2017. Self-contained article based on PhD dissertation. Examining how cooperation between international, state, and non-state actors to provide security have resulted in the embedding of violent or illegitimate institutions and forms of order in the machinery of the (Afghan) state. Individual project. Work in-progress. Manuscript to be submitted with International Peacekeeping.

‘Security Cooperation and Hybridisation of Security in War’. 2016-2017. Examining the mechanisms for cooperation between state armed forces and non-state armed groups, and which mechanisms foster ‘norms of restraint’ in armed conflict. Case-studies include Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Collaborative project. Co-investigator with Dr Suzanne Levi-Sanchez (San Francisco State University). Work in-progress; manuscript to be submitted with International Security.

‘Radicalisation in South Asia: Islamic State and its Wilayat Khorasan in Afghanistan and Pakistan’. 2016-2017. Examining the extent to which the Islamic State’s transnational wilayat (province) in Afghanistan and Pakistan adopts the politico-military and propaganda playbook of Islamic State central. Collaborative project. Co-investigator with Dr Haroro Ingram (ANU) and Dr Craig Whiteside (US Naval War College). Work in-progress; manuscript to be submitted with Small Wars and Insurgencies.

‘The SG and the Forgotten Third R2P Responsibility’. 2016. Examining how, retrospectively (ex post facto) the failure to rebuild and secure peace in an intervened state has failed R2P intervention. The Study argues ‘rebuilding’ should be a central pillar in R2P theorising. Collaborative project; co-investigator with Ramesh Thakur. Forthcoming in Global Responsibility to Protect.

‘Afghanistan in South-West Asia: Influences and Challenges’. 2014-2015. Examined the military and political transitions in Afghanistan. Collaborative project. Co-investigator with Professor William Maley. Co-editor (with Nishank Motwani and William Maley), edited volume. Manuscript submitted with Durham Modern Middle East and Islamic Studies World Series (Routledge).

‘Death by a Thousand Cuts or Dance of the Seven Veils? Legitimacy and Generation of Authority in Afghanistan’s Statebuilding Enterprise, 2001—2014’. 2011-2016. Examined the role of Legitimacy in promoting the internationalised statebuilding project in Afghanistan. Individual project (PhD). PhD recommended for the J.G. Crawford Prize for outstanding contribution to scholarship.